The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Obama: Shiva the Destroyer?

Posted on | November 22, 2010 | 8 Comments

Barracuda Brigade linked this:

This sounds about right:

“Shiva is the destroyer, the most powerful god of the Hindu pantheon and one of the godheads in the Hindu Trinity.”

However great Obama’s destructive power — three weeks ago, he was widely credited for the annihilation of Democrats in the mid-term elections — this attribution of divine power is offensive to Hindus:

Newsweek’s depiction of President Obama on its latest cover has irked some Indian Americans who, fresh off Obama’s visit to the world’s largest democracy, are not happy with the image of the U.S. president as the Hindu deity, Lord Shiva. . . .
Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism in Nevada, told the English-language Sify News in India that Nataraja is highly revered and meant to be worshipped, not indecorously thrown around. Zed, who is known for his work on interfaith dialogue, said it is not OK to use Hindu concepts and symbols for profit or self-serving purposes.
Suhag Shukla, managing director and legal counsel of the Washington-based Hindu-American Foundation, told FoxNews.com that her group doesn’t think Newsweek was being malicious or trying to offend Hindus, but “the cover was in line with the media’s comfort of utilizing Hindu symbols or deities to symbolize an issue.”

Robert Oppenheimer once famously invoked Shiva: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

Category: Barack Obama

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